ARQUIUSPRITE: But why, lord broARQUIUSPRITE: I was just about to pony up the boob fa%ARQUIUSPRITE: There is a 100% probability that you would have been thrilled to hear my e%egesis on troll knockersDIRK: It might have been an interesting subject to talk about another time, with a different person.DIRK: But that's not now, and it sure isn't with you.ARQUIUSPRITE: Dude, that is ice coldARQUIUSPRITE: I would be hurt, if I were not a flawless machine fused with haughty nobilityARQUIUSPRITE: If you don't wish to hear my epic monodialogue on alien bazongasARQUIUSPRITE: I'm not sure what else I can do to entertain youARQUIUSPRITE: You are seriously hoofcuffing my material hereARQUIUSPRITE: Pretty demanding, if you ask meARQUIUSPRITE: But as your mystical guide, I suppose it is my duty to manufacture small talk, if that's what you really wantARQUIUSPRITE: What about fine art? We could talk about thatARQUIUSPRITE: Dirk, did you know the sweaty troll guy who I used to be, and still kind of am, used to adore fine art?ARQUIUSPRITE: He was just like you and me, in that senseARQUIUSPRITE: It seems I have a lot in common with myselfARQUIUSPRITE: If you can ever manage to get over yourself, I would highly recommend being meARQUIUSPRITE: Or at least something like meARQUIUSPRITE: Maybe somewhere, there is a dead troll out there, just waiting for you to merge with himDIRK: I wasn't asking you to make small talk, or to hear about all the ways you've managed to shit around wasting time.DIRK: Believe it or not, I was hoping you would describe the tactical situation there.ARQUIUSPRITE: Sounds boringARQUIUSPRITE: Are you sure you don't want to talk about paintings of big naked horse monsters and such?DIRK: Yes, you got me.DIRK: I would love to have a long talk about horse nudes and xenobreasts with you.DIRK: Unfortunately I'm wearing pantaloons and flying through the middle of goddamn nowhere.ARQUIUSPRITE: Pantaloons you sayDIRK: Pant a fucking loons.ARQUIUSPRITE: Sir, are you implying that you are not dressed appropriately for a discussion of high cultureARQUIUSPRITE: Because it seems to me that you could not be dressed more appropriately if you triedDIRK: I respectfully disagree.ARQUIUSPRITE: Where are you?DIRK: I don't know. Way out in space.DIRK: I'm flying back there now.ARQUIUSPRITE: How long do you suppose it will take you to get back?DIRK: I'm not sure.DIRK: A pretty good while.ARQUIUSPRITE: Never mind. I have triangulated your location and velocity using long range sensor technology, and probably also some sprite magicDIRK: You did?ARQUIUSPRITE: Hey DirkARQUIUSPRITE: Remember how whenever I dubiously claimed to have triangulated something, it was always this great play on words?DIRK: Not really.ARQUIUSPRITE: Because I was just a pair of trianglesARQUIUSPRITE: But not anymoreDIRK: I know.ARQUIUSPRITE: Because I have this rockin' new torsoDIRK: Cool.DIRK: How long do your calculations say it will take me to get back?ARQUIUSPRITE: E%actly a little more than three hoursDIRK: Damn it.ARQUIUSPRITE: Additional sweeps from my STRONGLASERS are telling me there are a few other people on the periphery of the session closing in at a similar rateDIRK: Who?ARQUIUSPRITE: Just some dudesARQUIUSPRITE: What are you doing all the way out there and wearing pantaloons, by the wayDIRK: Let's not talk about the pantaloons anymore.DIRK: Roxy and I became god tiers, but I don't remember exactly how.DIRK: Then I saw the Batterwitch.DIRK: So I charged her with my sword, so as to ruin her shit.DIRK: That's when some crazy wolf girl appeared and punched me in the face.DIRK: Then I think she teleported me out here.ARQUIUSPRITE: That was evil JadeDIRK: Evil Jade??ARQUIUSPRITE: YesDIRK: You mean Jake's grandmother.ARQUIUSPRITE: YesDIRK: She's evil too?ARQUIUSPRITE: YesDIRK: Is anyone there NOT evil?ARQUIUSPRITE: YesDIRK: Yes what?ARQUIUSPRITE: Yes anyone here is not evilARQUIUSPRITE: That is to say, there e%ist people here who are not evilARQUIUSPRITE: Such as DaveARQUIUSPRITE: Dave is not evil, to my knowledgeDIRK: Dave???

So what do we call this pause? I've been batting ideas around all day. We could go with the obvious choice, the MINIGIGAPAUSE. Or maybe, MEGAPAUSE 2: BACK IN THE MEGASADDLE. Or if that makes too much sense, we could always settle on the MICROTERAPAUSE. As you can see, there are so many incredibly intelligent and meaningful things we could call this pause. Deciding how to refer to the pause is an exercise that I will leave to the reader. Feel free to discuss the matter with friends. Or strangers. Anyone who will listen really. If they start to run away, I strongly recommend you chase them.

Why don't we say that A665 begins on 4/13. That's a fun number that we all can get excited about. I have a lot of catch-up work to do between now and then. Not the least of which is drawing the actual content to be posted. But also a lot of gamedev work. Game production is rolling pretty hot right now. Stuff is being churned out almost faster than I can keep track of. Did I mention? I accidentally started running a game studio a little while ago. Whoops, sorry about that. There are all these people being paid to make things happen, and I have to be like "Yeah, keep doing that stuff, everybody." It's getting pretty easy to lose track of how many people work for What Pumpkin. My last estimate was somewhere between 30 and 1000. The true figure is a very frisky moving target.

A6A6A5, a.k.a. Caliborn's Masterpiece, is actually done. It's probably better to hold off posting it until 4/13, when more content will soon follow aftewards. I am sure pausing on that note for months would mess with your head a lot more than the note we're already pausing on. I sometimes feel I have at least a modest responsibility to manage your sanity. It'll be tough sitting on this content though. Tougher than sitting on all of A664 for the better part of a year. I don't think it is out of line to describe it as the best material this website will ever exhibit. It will be all down hill from there, in every direction. Even up.

Speaking of sanity management, way back when, I was pretty on the fence about posting A664 spaced out over months like I did, vs. all at once. Doing the latter in hindsight probably would have been a fucked up thing to do to the internet though. The GAME OVER fallout alone was a bit much as it was. Including it in tandem with the rest of it? Not sure what to make of that. Let's review the CONTENT CRUSH that would have entailed. Bad Anime -> Game Over -> Sadstuck -> Lowas Quest -> 100 retconned panels of oil -> A bunch of other shit -> Punky Serket -> Fantroll Storytime -> 8 password pages -> The Kiss On Horse Mountain -> and finally -> The Punchline. You know, that's an awful lot of baloney to publish. I think the fell-swoop reaction to all that would have been quite a thing to behold, but also, perhaps an irresponsible thing to do to a hapless fanbase after a year in hibernation. I'm told that in 2015, young people are heavily susceptible to "the feels", and trifling with those forces could be injurious to their future development. Wait, did that just sound like something your grandpa would say? Mother fuck, where did I put my cane. Oh right, I snapped it in half from shaking it at the sky.

I may have been in the process of making a point there, but we're going to have to pick this up another time. The comic isn't going to pause itself!!!

Over the last couple months, I have been surreptitiously collapsing several update horses into single, bigger horses. This means A6A6I4 is going to end a little sooner than previously advertised. Same total page count, but finishing sooner. Please consult the important horse calendar below.

So what happens when A6A6I4 is done? I'm not quite sure yet. I'm still working on everything that comes after that. I've written it mostly, but haven't drawn anything yet. There will almost certainly be another pause, but I'm not sure how long it will be yet. I will let you know after 1/19.